Pancreatic cancer is a cancer that often has a poor prognosis, even when detected in its early stages. It is estimated that for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, only 6% of patients survive five years after diagnosis. The most common form of pancreatic cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), is known to have an extremely poor prognosis. Although survival time improves for patients who undergo a surgical resection, PDAC frequently is not diagnosed in time for surgical resection to be feasible.
The oncogene K-Ras is frequently mutated in cancers, such as pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancers, with activating K-Ras mutations present in over 90% of PDACs. However, to date there have been no successes in developing small molecule inhibitors that directly block K-Ras function and show efficacy in pre-clinical models.